2013 MUSIC MONTH SUMMIT

YOUR MUSIC AS A BUSINESS

The Summit is a FREE day of seminars featuring musicians, music industry specialists and traditional business practitioners who discuss and explain the behind the scenes intricacies of the New Zealand music industry and how you should look at treating your music as a business.

Seminar One: Your Band as a BrandPRESENTED BY TE PUNI KOKIRI10AM - 11AM

Today’s music industry has changed dramatically. How and where bands promote and distribute their music has evolved from the traditional, resulting in a need for bands to change their approach to marketing their music and themselves. We ask why branding has become so important and challenge the thinking if it's all about the music, is branding a band selling out?

In this seminar you will hear from experts who will give their thoughts on why considered marketing and appropriate branding is so important to the success of the music reaching it’s audience.

Seminar Three: International Trade Fairs – How important are they to your international business?PRESENTED BY THE NZ MUSIC COMMISSION1.30PM – 2.30PM

A panel of music industry professionals who have attended a variety of international trade fairs, discuss the pros' and con's of bands or managers attending: WOMEX, AWME, MIDEM, SXSW, Canadian Music Week, CMJ, Big Sound, The Great Escape, Reeperbaan, Muse Expo.

Seminar Four: Be your own record company – how to release your own albumPRESENTED BY PPNZ MUSIC LICENSING3.00PM – 4.00PM

Traditionally releasing an album was considered a mysterious magic reserved for major labels and the intrepid indie pioneers. These days, the rapidly growing culture of self-released music casts these spells themselves.

In this seminar our panel will talk about planning an album release strategy. From putting together the timeline, creating a promotional plan, targeting media, selecting the right first single, shooting a video, creating artwork, and manufacturing, through to distribution to retailers and self promotion via social media. This seminar will give you all the tools to release your album yourself. And how to do it successfully.

For members of the Music Managers' Forum each seminar will be followed by the highly successful speed networking sessions, where members get the exclusive opportunity to speak one on one with a range of the day's speakers. If you are not yet a member but would like to take part in these mentoring sessions, you canbecome a member prior to the day.

Round up

Saturday 25th May saw the official NZ Music Month Summit at Q Theatre in Auckland taken over by excited New Zealand music fans keen to learn from a range of music industry specialists.

Presented by the Music Manager’s Forum and the New Zealand Music Commission, the NZ Music Month Summit was an extremely informative day of seminars that covered a range of topics including radio vs the online world, looking at your band as a brand, attending international trade fairs and being your own record company.

Attendees commented the Summit was "highly accessible, pragmatic and informative”. Another enthused “great variety of speakers - some important and relevant info that will affect decisions in the near future”.

The Official NZ Music Month Summit held annually has become a must attend event in the NZ Music Month calendar with this year’s theme “Your Music As A Business” challenging some long held beliefs of the music industry.

A range of musicians, self managed artists, managers and people eager to enter into the music industry attended the seminars with a record number of new members signing up for the MMF Mentoring sessions.

The speakers on the day shared their knowledge and experience to an interested and engaged audience. Arch Hilll’s Ben Howe commented, “I have always enjoyed being a part of the NZ Music Month Summit. It is a great chance to discuss various industry issues of the day - with both the audience and the panelists. As usual, the event was well attended by all kind of musicians and aspiring music business folk. Many of them asked interesting questions that get you thinking, even after the event's conclusion”.